Tag Archives: Klingons

Whew, it’s been a long while since I posted on this website. I’ve been playing a lot of this wonderful Star Trek mod for Sins of a Solar Empire. It’s the best Star Trek computer game I’ve ever played, and so thoroughly amusing that it’s not a game in and of itself. Regardless, it’s gotten me in the mood to post some Decipher Star Trek rpg ship stats up! Enjoy!

WARNING: Book Spoilers Ahead!

One thing I’ve always loved about Star Trek is its contemporary social commentary, and that is as true with most of the novels I’ve read as it is with most of the T.V. series and movies.

Revelation and Dust is the first book in a new series of novels titled “The Fall”, where a singular event signals the possible downfall of the Federation and its Khitomer Accords allies with the opposing Typhon Pact, a fall into war, a fall from grace.

The novel starts with the dedication of the 2nd Deep Space Nine (a Starfleet Frontier-class station), some two years after a terrorist attack by rogue members of the Typhon Pact destroyed the original, killing some 2,000 Federation citizens. Members of the Khitomer Accords alliance, such as the Klingons (whose Klingon Qang-class warships have been in conflicts with the Typhon Pact), Ferengi, and Cardassians arrive on the station. Surprisingly, even members of the Typhon Pact, the Romulans and Gorn, arrive for the dedication as well. Just before the dedication of the new station can be completed, the Federation president is assassinated, and evidence eventually implicates the Typhon Pact as the perpetrators.

The storyline, in some ways, vary obviously parallels the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. In a previous post, I commented on some of the moral and ethical struggles the United States and Federation have faced and continue to face in light of these attacks.

The Federation now faces a choice, will it fall from grace and declare war on the Typhon Pact, when never in its history has it ever declared war first? Will doing so make a mockery of the peace and principles that the Federation so espouses, the very reason for its creation in the first place? By the same vein, the United States faces similar moral, ethical, and even legal questions, such as: What actions are justifiable to protect itself? Spying on one’s allies (even though those same allies spy on it as well)? Violating the Geneva conventions when it interrogates captured suspected terrorists? Spying on one’s own people, in violation of its own laws?

At what point do our actions to protect ourselves lead to the destruction, the fall, of our core principles, those tenets that we value above all else, those virtues that make us who we are? John F. Kennedy once said, “The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.” Is America at the edge of its “fall”, or are we merely at a “stumble” in the continuing road that is history? I had a long talk with a fellow lover of history the other week, in which we both discussed how our very conversation on this and other matters may have been paralleled over a century ago by two British gentlemen in the years before the Great War, when the British Empire reined supreme over the world, unsurpassed by any other contemporary nation …

Over the last month I have really gotten into playing the board game, Star Trek: Fleet Captains, especially with the introduction of the Romulan expansion. For those of you that are into board games and into Star Trek, this game truly captures the feelof Star Trek more than any other game I’ve played.

My wife and I love playing board games, it’s a wonderful way to spend time with one another as well as to indulge a bit of our creativity and problem-solving abilities. With Star Trek she always plays the Federation and (up until the Romulan expansion), I’ve always played the Klingons. The Federation, for those not in the know, is a peaceful organization dedicated to scientific and social progress, while the Klingons are an aggressive warrior species bent on galactic conquest.

I have discovered that in trying to play the Klingons as written in Trek lore, aggressive and expansionistic, I invariably lose 3/4 of the time against my pacifistic, science-focused Federation-playing wife. I’ve found that more often than not, when I do win at the board game, it’s usually because I have undertaken missions that do not rely on combat for success, but instead involve non-violent methods. That is why this board game successfully captures the feel of Trek; it shows us that violent conflict is not the best route to victory, and that’s a lesson that would do our world so much good if we all took that a bit more to heart when we interact with the people we share it with.

So below I have created some additional ships for the board game, enjoy!

With the addition of my starship write-up of the Starfleet Excalibur-class starship, I now have stats for over 70 starships from multiple species and spread out over 7 centuries. I must admit to a love affair with the starships of the Star Trek universe, there’s just something so visually appealing about them and how easily recognizable a Federation starship (from above) is, from say, a Klingon starship (see below).

In the universe of Star Trek: Online the peaceful Federation has come into increasing conflict with the Klingon Empire, with the result that the Federation has begun producing more warships, rather than its formerly (almost) exclusive policy of building multi-function starships suitable for both peaceful and military purposes.

It’s interesting that the Federation would have ever thought that it could realistically sustain its territory without building ships dedicated to war. The reason being the Federation is an obvious analogy for either the United States (or more rarely the United Nations). Can you imagine the United States naval fleet being composed of ships that were like the Federation’s multi-purpose ships? We’d have ships that would be housing entire families, with large areas devoted to arboretums and recreation areas. As laudable as the Federation’s intent is, it is not something that would be feasible here on Earth, just as in the end it proved to be unfeasible in the fictional universe of Star Trek. Perhaps one day we can have sea ships similar to the Federation’s starships, vessels that while capable of defending themselves are more suited to peaceful purposes.

When first presented in the Original Series, they were portrayed as manipulative, deceptive, treacherous even. We saw this many times throughout that series, as the Klingons tried to sneakily destroy the Federation, whether it be via poisoning grain (Sherman’s Planet), or arming primitives, or just being jerks in general.

New School Kor. Apparently the head ridges were part of the deal.

Fast forward a hundred years and Klingons, as exemplified by Worf, seem to be a wholly different society. Now they are concerned with honor, fight blood feuds to the death, are ruled by an Emperor, and are an all-around primitive-like warrior society equipped with all-too modern weaponry. Some fans of the franchise didn’t particularly take to this sudden change, some argued that no society can change so radically in such a short time. Is that true, though?

Let’s take a look at a society in our own world, Japan. Prior to American Commodore Perry’s arrival in Japan in 1853, Japanese society was isolationist, feudal, and by the standards of the western world at that time was technologically primitive. Perry’s arrival changed all that.

Within 40 years of Perry’s arrival, Japan had become a modern industrial nation, and by 1905 Japan proved it by being the first eastern power in recent history to decisively defeat a European power. Japanese society had also undergone a radical transformation. We were no longer dealing with a feudal warrior society going into battle on horseback armed with swords and bows, by the dawn of the 20th century, Japan was a militarily aggressive nation that had a modern army equipped with current firearms and fielding a navy powerful enough to defeat the Russian far eastern fleet.

Now let’s look at Japan 100 years after Perry’s arrival. Japanese society in 1953 had undergone yet another transformation. By this time Japanese society was no longer militarily aggressive, but was beginning its rise as an democratic, peaceful, and economic power.

Societies change, people change, the world changes, and that’s a beautiful thing.